Assembly elections 2022: Does higher voting percentage mean anti-incumbency?
India Today
More voters now exercise their franchise in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections than was the case in the 1950s.
Higher voter turnout indicates a throbbing democracy, while lower participation is a sign of apathy towards the ongoing political process. But do higher or lower turnouts tell us anything about counting day?
India Today's Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) analysed voter participation data of the five poll-bound states spanning 70 years. The data has been compiled by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).
More voters now exercise their franchise in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections than was the case in the 1950s. The turnout has gone up from 46 per cent in the first Lok Sabha elections held in 1952 to 67 per cent in 2019.
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Assembly elections, on average, have witnessed comparatively higher participation throughout. For instance, Uttar Pradesh has reported an average of 52.8 per cent turnout in the Lok Sabha elections held from 1989 to 2019.
The average turnout in assembly elections during the same period has been 54.81 per cent.
A similar trend has been observed in Punjab too, where the average voter turnout has been 60.4 per cent in Lok Sabha elections in the last four decades. It has been 6 percentage points higher in assembly elections in the same period.
